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In the Times of Don Porfirio
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Wikipedia article
'In the Times of Don Porfirio' (Spanish:'En tiempos de Don Porfirio') is a 1939 Mexican musical film directed by Juan Bustillo Oro and starring Fernando Soler, Marina Tamayo, Emilio Tuero and Joaqun Pardav.Segre p.89 The film, adapted from a novel, nostalgically portrays the government of General and President Porfirio Daz, who is played by Antonio R. Frausto, who played him in several films. The film was the highest-grossing Mexican film of the year.
Cast
* Fernando Soler as don Francisco
* Marina Tamayo as Carmen
* Emilio Tuero as Fernando Villanueva
* Joaqun Pardav as don Rodrigo
* Dolores Camarillo as Chole
* Aurora Walker as doa Carlota
* Agustn Isunza as Estebn
* Lucha Mara vila as Carmen, nia
* Victoria Argota as doa Etelvina
* Conchita Gentil Arcos as doa Julia
* Humberto Rodrguez
* Manuel Noriega
* Armando Velasco as don Germn
* Gerardo del Castillo
* Emilio Romero
* Adolfo Bernldez
* Manuel Pozos as don Luis
* Max Langler as don Fulgencio
* Manuel Zoca
* Julio Ahuet
* Roberto Caedo as Extra
* Antonio R. Frausto as Porfirio Daz
* Jos Elas Moreno as Invitado a baile
* Aurora Ruiz as Sirvienta
Release and reception
The film was the highest-grossing Mexican film in its year of release at the box office. The author Carl J. Mora wrote that "the nostalgia it evoked of a simpler and more peaceful epoch could also be interpreted as a rejection by the middle class of the more socialistic aspects of the Revolution. The appearance in the film of such popular actors as Fernando Soler, the Spanish immigrant Emilio Tuero, and the fine comic actor Joaqun Pardav were also potent factors in the movie's success.
In their book 'Culture and Customs of Mexico' - Peter Standish and Steven M. Bell describe the film as a "political extreme", in that the "film's nostalgia for the stable hierarchies of pre-Revolutionary days arguably provided some comfort to the sectors of society that felt threatened by the Cardenas government's land redistribution and nationalization programmes". Colin Gunckel, Jan-Christopher Horak and Lisa Jarvinen described the film as a "political revista that utilized zarzuela melodies popular during the Porfiriato". Jacqueline Avila compared it to 'Mexico de mis recuerdos' (1944), describing them as "two noteworthy films that intertwine musical performances in the narratives and expose the social contradictions of Porfirian culture, particularly concerning women's roles".AVILA, JACQUELINE. Mxico de Mis Inventos: Salon Music, Lyric Theater, and Nostalgia in Cine de Aoranza Porfiriana. Latin American Music Review / Revista de Msica Latinoamericana, vol. 38, no. 1, University of Texas Press, 2017, pp. 127, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44862442.
References
Bibliography
* Segre, Erica. 'Intersected Identities: Strategies of Visualisation in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Mexican Culture'. Berghahn Books, 2007.
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